Before anyone says "yes me too" I want to stress out that :
THIS THING IS EXPERIMENTAL, WE ARE *TESTING* IT
This means it may crash, it may not perform as you like, it may have some glitches,and most of all
when we'll go up for the real thing you will have to
register again and such, all done here will be lost !
Actaully, it will be even better ( I am going to give you instructions about "how to do" ) you really
start with "totally clean profiles" so with "zero or low scores" so we can see how the thing behaves/etc.
while the score boards gets populated, scores are changed and such
So STEP NUMBER ONE could really be :
1. BACKUP your profiles ( see instructions below ) and start CLEAN with NEW ones.
Your profile is contained in 2 files, "userprofile.dat" and "globalsettings.dat", on windows XP
those are located into C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\GridrunnerRev
on Vista they are in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming
Copy those files somewhere and delete them and/or rename them as OLD_userprofile.dat and OLD_globalsettings.dat
And there you go now you start "fresh" as when you installed it the first time.
Note: your reginfo and stuff is not in there, you can't mess/loose/change it by touching those files there's nothing
"that magic" in those files.
2. Add this entry in your hosts file
As this is all A TEST we are using a an old machine that been "reconverted" in our local "ubuntu server", this
machine IS NOT 24h/24h hour up and was the original MAME machine before the CRT explosion .. I close it at nights and
I restart it in the morning so beware, it could be not up all time.
The host file on XP is in C:\windows\system32\drivers\, on Vista should be on the same location mind you you
may need administrator privileges to modify it, despite having no extension is a simple text file ( use notepad ).
It normally will look like this ( or such )
Code: Select all
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost
Code: Select all
213.208.108.23 ubuntu
Now, a "silly test" would be to open a command prompt and type "ping ubuntu" and see it's trying to ping
213.208.108.23 ( there won't be any reply ), all you need to see is that "ubuntu" gets resolved to that address.
Finally .. we are almost ready to download this EXPERIMENTAL code and run it but first
a couple of words about how it works.
" .. it's very simple, a ball twists in every direction while .. "
.. ah ehm .. no .. that's another thing ..
Ok it's very simple, you register for an "account" and you get your nickname, once you are registered your
scores go up, you play and when you finished the scores are there
Fundamentally when you'll start the game as first "nothing happens" because you still don't have any
account ( on the LS database ) however, if you go straight on into the "high score" tables you'll see now
there is ( assuming you SW IS REGISTERED - NOTHING IS THERE for the UNregistered SW
) a newoption that says 'C' online/local.
By pressing 'C' you switch between the online/local scores, you should be able to see two scores of me
and Yak in it.
If you can see that "it already all should be ok" then.
The next step "create your account".
Very simple.
You go into the "Help and Options" menu and you'll see there's a new entry "Online Settings".
Choose that and you'll see a new menu, 2 voices are selectable now ( and 2 not ) one is
"Register Online" the other is "Use existing account".
As you don't have any existing account yet obiviously you have to choose the first one "Register online".
Some data will be asked, for privacy paranoids and such that data so far is not displayed anywhere
and is used for your identification only, password and such are not stored in clear format of course but
everything is hashed/encrypted I still don't know if people wants/would like to have some of it displayed
in the public or not so far the ONLY thing that gets "to the public" is you NICKNAME ( or call it
username or how you like it ).
So you enter the data, there are 3 stages, what is most important is your password you'll choose and
your nickname, don't give your password away or you'll be fucked.
So register and voila' .. you'll be ready to post your scores.
How does it works ?
As simple as that.
Any time you make a score, assuming is high enough, it gets saved "in 2 parts", online and offline, the first time you'll
get the account as well your score table will be "synched" with the server too, this basically means "the highest score
present in your tables will be put online".
What about if there's no network ?
Simply nothing, the next time you'll go online and you'll start the game there will be a moment when it will try
to synch, as long as your scores are locally saved they are never lost and "as soon as there will be a possibility to
contact the server they will be up".
On the boards you now also have a "filter" ..
By choosing "my score" you'd be thrown into the portion of the score tables where you are ( IF you are there ) and
your entry is highlighted.
By choosing "All" you are free to navigate around browings pages.
By choosing "Top 11" .. well .. it's top 11
Arrows move you around the pages .. when you hear a "beep" and nothing happens it means you reached
the top or the bottom of the list.
Now web pages with all this ?
Yes, there are, but I am finishing to work on those, I have to port in there some modifications I've done while
doing all this.
Experiment, test, etc. let me know, etc.
I repeat once again.
This is EXPERIMENTAL
Ah yes .. the most important thing .. where I download all this ?
HERE IS THE THING
I'd reccomend you first uninstall the old version and/or install this somewhere else but remember first to
backup your files.
Ok I hope this will do, you see why all this is still "not ready yet for the general public", it's all .. experimental ..
